Faces of Vietnam: A Premonition and a Guardian Angel

On December 2nd, 1969, Gloria Kinnee awoke to the sound of a sonic boom. Curious as to what could have caused the sound, Kinnee asked her neighbors if they had heard anything. Oddly enough, no one else had heard it, except for Gloria’s brother, Ronald Grieger. They would later find out that their brother Donald Grieger had passed away. It was as if the noise that they heard was a premonition of their brother’s death.

Donald had enlisted in the Marines and was on a ship in the South Chinese seas when a large Amtrak that was being transported came loose and crushed him.

Donald was one of five children in the Grieger family. Sonny Grieger was the oldest, Charlie Grieger the second oldest, Gloria the only girl, and Donald and Ronald were fraternal twins and the youngest. Their family is part of the Oneida Native American tribe that originated in the Green Bay area.

They grew up in a house across the street from the Pabst Brewery in downtown Milwaukee. The house had only one bedroom that they all had to share, and in order to take warm baths, they had to heat up water on the stove. Their mother left when they were young, and their father worked a lot to make ends meet. The neighbors wanted to have the kids moved to an orphanage, but despite the seemingly poor living conditions, the kids stayed clean and still went to school.

“Dad did a great job of raising us, none of us were ever in jail,” Gloria says as she laughs.

Living near the brewery attracted a lot of rats, and for fun, the Grieger boys would sit on trash cans and throw rocks at them. Ronald and Donald would get dropped off at school in the morning, then would walk right out of the other door and entertain themselves elsewhere. Neither of them graduated the 8th grade.

Donald loved working on cars. He worked at a factory on the north side of Milwaukee and a lot of his money went into the numerous cars he owned. His favorite car was a GTO that he bought, and everyone used to say GTO stood for “Grieger Takes Over”. Donald and his childhood friend Donnie Popp would spend a lot of time on the weekends driving up and down Wisconsin Ave. and along the lakefront. He was 6’7” tall and 250 lbs, and as a result had a hard time getting in and out of cars.

“He’d get in the car and his knees would almost go around the steering wheel,” Popp says. “He should’ve been a basketball player he was so tall.”

Donald, Popp, and some of their other close friends would drive down to Racine on Highway 41 and race each other back to Milwaukee.

“No one could beat Donnie in his ’58 Chevy,” Popp recalls.

In their group of friends, Donald was the one to consult if someone needed help with their car, and he was always eager to help. They spent many late nights working on their cars.

“He’d give you the shirt off his back if you needed it,” Popp says. “You could call him up in the middle of the night for a ride and he’d take you there, no questions asked.”

Donald also loved to hunt. He and his brother Ronald and their friends would take an old 54 passenger school bus that had been converted into a camper up to Pearson, WI. They would also go “smell fishing” at the Mckinley Marina, a method of fishing that involved two people dragging a large net through the lake. The pier used to be packed with people from elbow to elbow, and everyone would spend the night drinking and fishing.

After both of Donald’s older brothers had returned from service and settled down with families of their own, Donald felt that it was his turn to enlist. After Basic Training, Donald returned home for a few weeks. When it was time for him to go overseas to fight in the war, Donald was hesitant. He missed his initial boat ride, and the next one that he caught ended up being the one that he was killed on.

The funeral held for Donald had so many people in attendance that they had to open up a second room. It was clear that Donald was loved by many and had an impact on the people in his life.

“Even the young guys who didn’t know him were crying, it was so sad,” Gloria says.

After Donald passed away, Gloria’s daughter, who was five years old at the time, was playing with a ball in their house. Gloria was in another room, and she heard glass break. She ran into the other room to make sure her daughter was safe, and she saw shards of glass spread in a circle around her. Gloria’s daughter had broken the chandelier with the ball she was playing with, and miraculously none of the glass had fallen on her. Her daughter said nothing but “I want to go by Uncle Donnie.”

“Her uncle Donnie is her guardian angel now after he died,” Gloria says.

-Read other student Faces of Vietnam photos here.

This photo was updated with the correct spelling of Gloria’s name.